History
Pirate captain[]
Presumably during the Pre-Cataclysmic Age (see notes), Captain Ehestes Rhan sailed as a pirate, plundering ships at least along the Nespian trade route.
He possessed a few ancient incantations books, though he claimed to have never dabbled in black magic.
After plundering and sinking the Valishka, a merchant ship from Auuroghan sailing with large riches (composted of beautiful Valishkian jewels) on the Nespian trade route, on August 2nd, Rhan intended to use his fortune to retire.[1]
Zahrahn[]
Though, on August 5, the crew, rendered greedy, demanded to keep on plundering the ships of the Nespian trade routes. As Rhan refused, the crew mutinied and clapped him in irons, accusing him of sorcery over it, as they had found a few occult tomes in his cabin (though Rhan denied any dabbling in black magic).
On August 12th, Rhan was marooned on an isle west of Grebuhl, left there with his books (which they mockingly tossed on the beach) and the treasure (which they buried), until the crew would return from their thirst of plunder.
Stranded on the isle (that he named Zahrahn, later located in the Pictish Wilderness during the Hyborian Age), he found food in abundance, but soon decided to avenge himself and punish the mutineers, while forcing them to respect the Ancients they despised. He studied the teachings of Set and Mhur from his books. He prayed to the Dark Ones, and to the Great Goat Gods and their brethren, unwillingly summoning a terrible creature only named as "the were-god". The creature seemingly forced Rhan to mate, and later spawned the monstrous Children of Rhan, rapidly aging girls that eventually transform into massive feral creatures if taken away from their birthplace, and causing the weariness of men. Rhan died, seemingly killed by the were-god.[1]
The Children of Rhan[]
The crew, now led by Captain Lahrentz, returned on May 6th. They found Rhan's skeleton, his log, the buried treasure, but also a group of Children of Rhan under the form of white-haired girls, that they took in, intending to sell them as slaves for an enormous profit. They loaded the ship with provisions and left the isle by May 10th. The Children of Rhan soon grew up to womanhood, were married to the crew, slaughtered them, and shipwrecked three hundred miles afar, on the coast which would become a valley in Vanaheim, near the city of Surhon.
During the Hyborian Age, circa 10,000 BC, Conan the Cimmerian would be confronted to the Children of Rhan as well.[1]Attributes
Abilities
Rhan was somewhat of an occultist, possessing a few ancient incantations books, though he claimed to have never dabbled in black magic.
Stranded on Zahrahn with his books by his crew, Rhan was able to use them, learning the teachings of Set and Mhur, and invoked by prayer the power of the Dark Ones, and of the Great Goat Gods and their brethren, unwillingly summoning were-god.[1]Paraphernalia
Equipment
Notes
- Ehestes Rhan created in "The Children of Rhan" (Savage Sword of Conan #64; May, 1981), written by Bruce Jones, as a pastiche for the scholars, occultists, and sorcerers of the Cthulhu Mythos, explorers of ancient and eldritch knowledge and whose journals and logs are usually found, unraveling the true horror behind some of the Mythos' tales.
- The era of those events are never detailed in names or dates, but it is safe to assume that they are set in the Pre-Cataclysmic Age (100,000 BC-18,000 BC), before the Great Cataclysm which would be the cause of the geological changes mentioned (the ocean in a valley of Vanaheim, the isle of Zahrahn in the ravines of Pictish Wilderness, which is attested as being fully formed after the Lesser Cataclysm, circa 17,500 BC). The other possibilities could that those geological changes occurred during the Lesser Cataclysm, or even -more unlikely- afterwards).
- The relation, if any, between Ehestes Rhan and his Children of Rhan, and Rhan, the Library and Sacred Necklace of Rhan (also created by Bruce Jones, in Venom: Enemy Within; February to April, 1994) is unrevealed.